O’Reilly smashes record

PASCO – With the crowd cheering her every step and just the slightest hint of a smile, Megan O’Reilly ran into the record book.

The Mt. Spokane senior accomplished her stated mission of running the fastest 3,200 meters in state high school history, blasting through the metric 2-mile in 10 minutes, 5.81 seconds Friday night at Edgar Brown Stadium.

“I can’t believe it,” she said after erasing the 24-year-old mark of 10:08 set by Bellevue’s Patty Matava. “It was one of those dream races. It was so fluid, everything clicked.

“It’s one thing to do it when there are 50 people in the stands. It gave me chills. It made me feel they wanted it as much as I did.”

It was her third State 4A 3,200 title but the others, which came in her freshman and sophomore years, were nothing like this one as she won by 38 seconds against a good field that saw seven girls break 11 minutes.

“I hit my splits,” she said. “I don’t remember what they all were. I think I fried some brain cells. My legs knew the pace – I don’t like thinking. If I don’t think, it turns out.”

There was only one other Greater Spokane League champion at the newly-christened John Crawford Track and it happened to be another Mt. Spokane athlete.

Beau Carrillo gave Spokane its seventh pole vault champion in the last 10 years when he cleared 15 feet, 3 inches.

“It’s a PR, a new school record and state championship,” he said. “That’s all I ever wanted.”

The girls shot put was a special competition with Cascade’s Whitney Hooks winning for the fourth straight year and setting a meet record of 47-3. After that the GSL went 2-3-4, led by University sophomore Dana McClendon’s toss of 44-6 1/2, which is No. 2 in history by a Spokane thrower.

“My goal was just to hit 44,” she said. “I didn’t care where I placed as long as I was in the top eight.”

Girls: O’Reilly went for the record two weeks ago at the District 8 meet at Spokane Falls Community College but fell short by more than 6 seconds.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “The 10:14 was really hard on me.”

The weather conditions were almost perfect. A daylong wind diminished by the time the race started at 8:15 p.m.

Riley said she isn’t bothered by wind, which was obvious when she ran the 3,000 in 9:29.18 in the wind late last month at Stanford. That was also an all-time state best, which she just missed when she passed the 3,000 mark at 9:29.5.

“I’m from Mt. Spokane – we’re in a wheat field, we’re in a wind tunnel,” she said. “I’m used to running in the wind. It helped.”

She was on pace for the record from the start, running 76 seconds for her first 400, hitting the halfway point at 5:04 and blazing the last lap in 72 seconds.

“At districts I took it out way too hard,” she said. “I got way too excited.”

McClendon made her mark on her first throw and Hooks didn’t take the lead until getting 45-11 on her second. She didn’t improve that until breaking Cherron Davis’ 2001 mark of 47-1 1/2 on her last throw.

“I think I rattled her a little bit,” McClendon said. “She probably hadn’t had people that close to her in a long time.”

McClendon made state last year but simply had a horrible meet, something she wanted to rectify.

“I didn’t want to have a result at state like last year,” she said, pointing out a litany of mishaps. “I came out relaxed and just put it out there.”

Mead’s Ashley Hutchinson was third (42-3 1/2) and Gonzaga Prep’s Erica Chaney was fourth (41-5 1/2).

Kelly McNamee of Ferris had a good shot to win the high jump, coming in with a best of 5-7, an inch shy of the state lead, but had to settle for a tie for second when she didn’t get 5-6.

“I missed my first jump at 5-0. I told myself I needed to get it together,” she said. “I felt great coming in. I was ready to PR. I felt confident. It just wasn’t my day. I was close on the last one. I knew I had to get over, I just didn’t put it together.”

Boys: Carrillo expected to have a good day, although he hadn’t cleared 15 feet since finishing second – to Brian Vu of Bellevue who set a 3A record of 16-1 – at the Pasco Invite more than a month ago.

“I’ve been doing good in practice,” he said. “I’ve been kind of injured all year. I figured this was the last one. I strained a calf muscle at Pasco. It was my jumping leg – I didn’t have much power off the ground.”

Josh Winters of Bothell, the state leader at 15-6 coming in, easily got over 15-3 but barely brushed the bar, which was enough for it to fall with the wind.

“I was going for 15-6 for a sure thing,” Carrillo said, of a height he just missed. “I’ve been over that all year. It wears on you.”

Teammate Tyler Sutherland was third at 14-6 and was easily high enough at 14-9 but brushed the bar off.

“First and third for Mt. Spokane, that’s pretty good,” Carrillo said. “We have a good coach (Sean Gumke).”